


Last Chance

by maskdemasque



Category: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Genre: Adults behaving dumbly, F/M, M/M, drunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2014-05-07
Packaged: 2018-01-23 20:55:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1579250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maskdemasque/pseuds/maskdemasque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroki has Jin's back, no matter what. But what will happen when years after Jin screwed up the only real thing he's ever known, he reaches his hand out to Kuroki? After thinking for so long that it's impossible, that Jin wanting him back is just too good to be true, will Kuroki even be able to reach back? And then how will the both of them deal with it when they're torn apart. </p><p>Chapter 1 isn't explicit but later chapters will be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Chance

Sure, he had been aware that Jin was getting drunk. He took shots with everyone else, himself. But Takeshi Kuroki had been watching, and Jin took every shot, and had been filling and refilling his beer. He had every reason to celebrate with the rest of them. Their work on the buddyroids and the vaccine programs had been a success, and for once things looked like they were looking up.

One of the subjects was even there to celebrate too, or… Well, Yoko Usami was sleeping in a corner on a pile of jackets, since it was way past her bedtime. Her mother, Kei, was on hand to make sure no one bothered the baby, but really, all of them loved her so much that no one would do anything to hurt her. Kuroki smiled at the little tyke, fondly. She was something like a mascot for the center, a representation of the future they were trying to protect. Now that she was talking, she was as sharp and clever as her mom, and she did a lot to entertain the various adults around her. No one saw her as a burden.

Well, maybe one person. Jin himself was not much of a fan of a kid being in his workplace. He’d been avoiding Yoko for her entire short life, saying that he was no good with kids, he didn’t even like them when he was one. Babies, he said, were an especial issue with him. He didn’t even know what they were for, he claimed. A lot of people thought he was bitter, because he and Kei had been on-again off-again until Yoko, at which point they were off again, for good. They had broken up about ten months before Yoko was born, apparently. At least according to the two of them. Kuroki knew better.

At any rate, it was pretty clear to tell Jin was lying about not liking kids, because with liquor inside of him he was glowing into the corner where Yoko slept, staring at her with a depth of fondness that rivaled any of them. That was fine. It was good for the rest of the EMC (at least, the ones who were sober enough to be observant) to see that the genius engineer who showed them all up was human, too.

It was when Jin stood up and hovered at the doorway of the private room, and then caught Kei on her way back from the bathroom that alarm bells went off in Kuroki’s head. Jin was gesturing even more flamboyantly than usual, staring at Kei and murmuring something urgently. Kei looked frustrated and uncomfortable. It was definitely a violation of the bro-code not to be doing something about this at this very moment, and Kuroki was probably the only one in this room who considered Jin a friend.

He got up to his feet and brushed crumbs off his button-down, then picked his way around the table towards Jin and Kei.

“...I promise you, I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. My job… I mean, the job I have, not the job… we decided I don’t have. Right?”

Kei gave Kuroki a desperate look over Jin’s shoulder, and Kuroki nodded, settling a hand on Jin. “Hey, Jin,” he interrupted with his usual gravitas.

“Kurorin!” Jin said with a grin, whirling. He gave Kuroki a fierce, drunken hug. “You’re here! Hey, tell Kei I’m just doing my job, right. And that she’s great. She’s the best.”

Kei rolled her eyes at him, and Kuroki did his best not to smile. It actually came quite easily for him. “She is well aware of that, Jin.”

“You’re right… You’re right, she knows.” He pulled back, lips pursed with a touch of frustration. “She never needed me to tell her anything, right Kei?”

“That’s right, Masato,” she said, crossing her arms. “You’re the one who needs to get told.”

“Told what? What?” he seemed a little distressed.

Kei pushed him into the hallway with a frown. “Told to go home and go to bed, I mean.”

He calmed down immediately. “Oh, right. That. I… yeah, I guess.” He pouted for a moment, his fat, kissable lips shining in the low light.

Kuroki shook his head. Beer getting to him, too. Must be. After all, he’d put all that far behind him. He cleared his throat. “I’ll take you, Jin. You’re liable to fall asleep in the gutter in this state.”

Jin turned towards him, his big brown eyes shining. “You’d do that for me, Kurorin? You’re a hero.”

Kuroki’s heart beat hard. Yeah, he had a thing for Jin. A while ago. But after this many years of watching the guy he had a crush on foundering in a pit of despair over a girl who left him behind years ago, he’d done what he usually did when he crushed on a straight guy, and smashed his feelings down as far as he possibly could.

Still, Jin was a coworker, so he couldn’t exactly avoid the sight of the man’s goofily handsome features, his long, straight nose, his lips. And of course, the handsome, self-deprecating smile he always wore on his face. Kuroki was stoic and quiet and just… not the type to get into it with a loud, ridiculous genius like Jin.

Kei smiled at him as he came back to himself. He blinked at her and nodded, taking Jin by the arm. “Here, Kei.” He dug in his pocket for his wallet and handed her a couple of bills. “This should cover me and Jin.” It probably would cover her too, not to mention a bunch of the other people still sitting at the table.

She took it and waved at Jin. “Get some sleep, Masato.”

“You don’t have to take care of me, Kei,” he murmured, throwing his arm over Kuroki’s shoulders, “I’ve got Kurorin for that.”

Kuroki actually blushed, then grumbled and rolled his eyes and dragged Jin out into the hallway.

They were out the door before Kuroki spoke again. “You shouldn’t have done that, Jin.”

“I do a lot of things I shouldn’t,” Jin said with a deep breath. “I just… Wanted to tell her.”

Kuroki sighed as he hauled Jin out from underneath the awning of the restaurant. “I’m pretty sure she knows, Jin.”

“No, no, ‘cos she thinks she’s got me figured out, she thinks she knows everything. She’s right, but… She’s just right about who I am, not what I feel like.” Being a genius, Jin didn’t exactly do a lot of work to make himself comprehensible to normal people even on his best days, and of course it was not one of those days.

Kuroki sighed. “I know.” He did, too. He knew Jin better than anyone. As much as it hurt him to know, he knew.

“No, you don’t, Kurorin!! You don’t get it! Yoko’s-”

He clapped a hand over Jin’s mouth and glowered. “You’re Yoko’s father, I know. You try so hard to pretend you don’t love her, because there’s some weird thing going on between you and Kei… But if you yell loud enough, the guys inside are going to hear and it’s going to make things WEIRD.”

Jin just blinked at him for a moment. “How’d you-” then he smiled and looked down, using his free hand to smooth his hair back from his forehead. “Nah, you just… You really do know everything, don’t you, Kurorin?”

Kuroki straightened in frustration, preparing himself for a sardonic onslaught like the one about Kei. “So? You… You’re going to get on my case for knowing you, Jin?”

Jin shook his head, lips pursed together. “Nah. No, I’m happy… Actually…” Jin threw his other arm around Kuroki’s other shoulder, and hauled himself up the length of the straight-backed military man. Kuroki’s body tingled where he felt the friction of their clothes rubbing together. If he was thinking clearly, he’d almost imagine that this could be the start of a kiss. He was actually starting to form that very thought when Jin’s oft-vaunted lips met his.

He kept his eyes open, as if seeing the blur of Jin’s face right up against his would make this seem more real than it did for the split second his eyes were closed.

The kiss lasted a while and tasted like sweet sake and salt. Kuroki just licked his lips after Jin pulled back, thinking about the echo of the sound their two lips made while parting. He was sure at that moment that he would never forget anything about it as long as he lived.

Jin’s eyes were hooded and dark and beautiful. “Why so surprised, Kurorin?” he asked, sing-song.

“I…” Kuroki swallowed, unable to bring the disparate pieces of his mind together to come up with a coherent thought.

“What, you thought just because I’m still in love with Kei, and I’m a mess, I can’t have a thing for you, too?” He tilted his head, coquettish, smirking.

“I thought you were straight,” Kuroki muttered, blushing.

Jin’s laughter rang off the buildings that made up the foot alley they were now making a show in. “I’m way too smart to be straight, Kurorin.” As if to punctuate that, he pressed another kiss to Kuroki’s mouth, then his cheek, then his ear.

Kuroki was still stunned, taking that moment to dig down under his layers of emotional distance to unearth the purestrain feelings for Jin that he’d hidden there. “I… uh…” Kuroki considered himself one of the few people who knew Jin. So he knew that Jin, even drunk as he was, didn’t do anything without thinking about it first. Even his off-the-cuff, seemingly spontaneous actions were carefully considered on his end. His brain worked so fast that careful consideration could take just a few minutes. Kuroki, on the other hand… He glanced down Jin’s back, realizing he’d been silent for far too long.

Jin whispered into his ear. “If you’re about to try to put this away and pretend it’s just ‘cos I’m drunk, you’re taking too long…” He shifted his hips into Kuroki’s with a grin Kuroki could hear and feel against his skin. “And you’re gonna have to hide that a little bit better if I’m gonna believe you when you say this is a mistake.”

“Stop trying to think circles around me, Jin.” Kuroki’s voice was tense and quiet. “You’re drunk.”

“You think I can’t think circles around you when I’m drunk?”

“Honestly, no,” Kuroki murmured, tugging on Jin’s ponytail. “You can’t even think circles around me when you’re sober, Jin. This isn’t the time. It’s really not the place.” He looked around at the alley around them.

Jin smirked. “You… are right. So smart.” He patted Kuroki’s cheek once, then stroked his dark, close-cropped hair gently. “Let’s go to my place.”

Kuroki sighed, his heart still thumping inside his chest. “What’s going to happen here is not what you think is going to happen here, Jin.” And not what Kuroki really wants to happen, either, but…

Jin pursed his lips, putting a hand over the bulge in Kuroki’s pants and looking up at him. “You think so?”

Kuroki growled, turning and grabbing Jin’s hand, pulling him aside and down the alleyway. “That’s ENOUGH.”

Jin stumbled along, watching, and then straightened and walked behind Kuroki, brow furrowed. “Kurorin are you… mad?”

Kuroki fumed silently for a couple hundred feet and then turned back, still holding Jin’s hand. “I did a solid for you by peeling you away from Kei before you embarrassed yourself, and this is how you repay me?”

Jin blinked. “I’m… what? I wasn’t… That wasn’t the point! I just… I like you, Kurorin. I just wanted to…” But as he continued to think, his face slowly became more sober and resigned.

Kuroki only had to glance back to realize that something was wrong. “What? Did you finally realize that maybe I’d be a little frustrated by you making a move on me when you’re wasted?”

Jin swallowed, nodding. “Yeah… Hah… Sorry, Kurorin!” He pulled his hand out of Kuroki’s, as fast as if it had suddenly burned him. “I just keep making the same mistakes over and over, you know? Good thing I’ve got you here to keep me from getting too full of myself. You’re gonna be a good boss, when they finally figure out how bad they need to promote you.” He stumbled ahead, body turned away.

“Hey… Hey!” Kuroki grabbed him by the shoulder. “Don’t walk away from me, Masato Jin,” he said, giving his best commanding rumble.

Jin froze in place, turning his head to the side. His hair fluttered into his eyes, playing over his red cheeks. Was it embarrassment or arousal? Kuroki walked into him, taking hold of his wrist. He took a deep breath. “I just can’t… I can’t do this… now. Not with you like this.” He paused, knowing that he needed to say more to keep Jin from walking away with the wrong idea.

Jin was staring at him, eyes wet and vulnerable. Had Kuroki ever seen him like this before? He couldn’t have imagined this expression on his face before. Jin took in a shuddering breath. “She gave me a choice, you know.”

“What?” Kuroki murmured, though he had an idea and it sank in his stomach like a rock.

Jin put his other hand on Kuroki’s. “She told me I could… only be the dad, be a part of Yoko’s life… if I could commit. She said ‘no half measures, Masato, not this time.’ And I took too long… I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t guarantee… that I wasn’t gonna screw it up. And that’s how I-” he choked.

Kuroki froze, his heart falling into his stomach. He put his arm around Jin and rested his chin on his friend’s shoulder. “Jin… It’s all right.”

Jin shivered. “I wanted it, though. I wanted to be… I just couldn’t…” he groaned. “And now I’ve screwed things up with you, too.”

Kuroki suddenly realized what the overreaction was about. He sighed. “That’s not it… I’m just not going to… I’m not going to take advantage of you in this state.” He tried to sound distant and gruff and totally unaffected, but what he really wanted to do was take Jin into his arms and hold him until he calmed down enough to fall asleep. It was more than that, too. He was a little afraid that if he’d actually gone through with it, Jin would wake up in the morning terrified of what he had done and pretended it was all a joke… That it wasn’t serious. He still wasn’t sure if Jin wouldn’t. All he could feel in him right now was fear.

Jin was still standing still, Kuroki wrapped around his body, and he gave a weak little laugh. “I just… I just wanted to try something, I guess. I thought maybe this time I wouldn’t flake out. You’ve always been good at keeping me on track, Kurorin…” He smiled, the pasted on grin that Kuroki could always see through.

Kuroki lifted his head and stepped around to face Jin. “I’ll take you home. I’ll sleep on the couch. We can talk about this in the morning, decide what we want to do then. But Jin… I… I do care about you. I want to do this. But if you wake up tomorrow and decide it was a mistake…”

Jin nodded, swallowing. “Yeah… I know. You’re still gonna be there for me. But…” he took Kuroki’s hand in both of his. “... I don’t think I’m gonna do that.” He kissed it, just once.

Then, as if the curtain had fallen down again, he put that same smile back on his face and tugged Kuroki along behind him, stumbling up the stairs to the train station.

 

That night, Kuroki woke to a heavy weight settling itself on his chest on the couch. In his half-sleep, he almost expected to wake to find a cat or dog or other such animal. He didn’t have time for pets, but he used to. Instead, the weight distributed itself over his whole body, another human lying on top of him on the couch. He opened his eyes to see a curtain of hair and not much else. “Jin…?” he asked, confused.

“Got cold,” Jin muttered, short. He wiggled into the space between Kuroki’s legs. The couch was wide enough, broken in by the nights Jin spent on it working on his laptop. Still, it was a little cramped with two of them.

“Are you…?” Kuroki started, but he was shushed by a hand.

“No… Shut up… I’m sleeping now.” The head flopped down on his chest with a low thunk, and he tried to get comfortable with the arms that were snaked around him. Jin slept on his chest, it appeared.

But after a moment, the knot in his chest that had been there ever since that kiss slowly untied. Jin was here, now. Kuroki couldn’t do anything to keep him from running, and he had to make his peace with that. But for right now, the comforting weight on his body wasn’t moving, except to breathe in and out. Kuroki went over the contents of the paltry fridge in his head and planned an early morning shopping trip for eggs and miso. Jin would definitely be hung over in the morning. He was still thinking about making breakfast when he drifted off to sleep under the man who in seven or eight hours would officially become his boyfriend.

 

 


End file.
